The Facts

The SIGGRAPH 2005 Emerging Technologies exhibition features 32 interactive installations from research labs, universities, independent artists, and industry that explore the dynamics of technology as it relates to the human experience, communication, and interaction.

SIGGRAPH 2005 Emerging Technologies features a wide variety of interactive installations that enhance, or could potentially enhance, our daily life. There will be a series of panel discussions on the technologies, implications, and challenges associated with each Emerging Technologies project during the conference.

New in 2005 is the Access Grid, which is a global collaborative performance piece, international art panels, and multi-site community interaction. This emerging, scalable teleconferencing technology enables interaction between individual desktops, 3,000-person theaters, and everything in between. The grid's 1,500 users throughout the world interact through thousands of nodes, designed spaces that contain the high-end audio and visual technology needed to provide a high-quality, compelling user experience.

High-resolution images are available for media usage in print and web publications. Contact media@siggraph.org for details.

A Quote from the SIGGRAPH 2005 Emerging Technologies Chair

"Emerging Technologies continues to be a launching pad for new technologies or new ways to use technology either for the benefit of life or as a work of art," said Donna J. Cox, SIGGRAPH 2005 Emerging Technologies Chair from NCSA/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "These installations take attendees on challenging virtual, interactive, communicative, or mental journeys - from hang-gliding over Rio de Janeiro to haptic video. Attendees will be challenged on how they think or look at the world around them."

A Few Highlights From the SIGGRAPH 2005 Emerging Technologies

Contact: Maki Sugimoto, The University of Electro-Communications
This project uses recent developments in image-presentation devices for measurement and control to display optical information that changes dynamically. It is an example of display-based computing, a novel technique that uses performance of display devices to output dynamic information arbitrarily by performing division and multiplexing in space and time.

Haptic Video

Contact: Satoshi Saga, Tachi Laboratory, The University of Tokyo
Haptic Video provides a precise and proactive approach to transmitting physical skills. By recording the working environment as well as the movement and force of an expert instructor, the goals are to develop an archiving system so that all pertinent skill information can be reproduced dynamically, to clarify the meaning of proactivity for "active touch," to verify the system's effectiveness as a training device, and to demonstrate how haptic devices can be used for substantial improvement of existing skills.

Potential Future Use: Immense efficiency gains for training in such delicate procedures as surgery and calligraphy.

The Interactive FogScreen

Contact: Ismo Rakkolainen, University of California, Santa Barbara
FogScreen's technology presents an enormous number of possible applications, sizes, forms, technical extensions (3D, for example), and versions. It can be merged with many technologies. For example, computer-vision-based finger tracking could enable drawing in thin air, gaming, or a "fog web browser." With interactivity, the FogScreen becomes an immaterial computer touch screen with nearly unlimited applications.

Interbots Initiative: An Extensible Platform for Interactive Social Experiences With an Animatronic Character

Contact: Taro Maeda, NTT Communication Science Laboratories
At Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, artists and technologists work together on projects that emphasize user experience. The Interbots Initiative specifically focuses on creating complete, interactive, believable experiences with animatronic characters. The most important factor in the success of these experiences is personality. However, the fields of human-robot interaction and entertainment robotics have thus far been largely limited to technical specialists: animators, writers, and other artists who design characters with interactive content. This project opens robotics to non-technologists through an easily extensible platform for rapid development of social interactions between humans and animatronic characters.

Potential Future Use: Adds animations/emotions to robotic devices that diminish the dividing line between human and robot.

Potential Future Use: A device that controls a personŐs movement by remote control.

SpotScents

Contact: Yasuyuki Yanagida, ATR Media Information Science Laboratories
Technologies that control olfactory space will enable people to enjoy scents as media in their daily life. SpotScents could be used at home, in shops, and in public places without special air-conditioning facilities or forcing users to wear any special devices. For example, at home people can enjoy movies and interactive games that feature rapid smell switching that corresponds to changes in scenes. For TV broadcasting, advertisers can provide a series of short "scented" commercial messages (perhaps 15 seconds). For example, a perfume commercial could follow a coffee commercial. In retail commerce, businesses can use suggestive smells to make people notice shops as they walk through shopping malls. In their creative works, artists can incorporate odors into multimodal pieces without worrying about mixing smells from adjacent works in an exhibit.

Potential Future Use: Increasing the ability to use the sense of scent to effectively communicate a message, feeling, or emotion that otherwise was impossible.

Straw-Like User Interface

Contact: Yuki Hashimoto, The University of Electro-Communications
Our lips and mouths are some of the most sensitive parts of the human body. For this reason, research on presenting various applications to this region of the body will be explored by many researchers in the near future. This project proposes an innovative methodology for presenting stimulation to the mouth and lips. This project is the world's first attempt to present virtual drinking sensations to the mouth and lips. Because this body region is so highly sensitive, it is possible to develop many unique interfaces and extend their applications into several research fields, including interactive arts and entertainment.

Virtual Hang-Gliding Over Rio de Janeiro

Contact: Luciano Pereira Soares, Universidade de São Paulo
This project enhances life by providing a safe and fun environment in which people can experience truly immersive hang-gliding flights over different international locations or even synthetic places created by artists. It relieves fear and allows many in the general public to experience this thrilling effect who otherwise might not have the opportunity. It also may alleviate issues caused by diminished self-confidence or insecurities.

Potential Future Use: Using virtual reality in new ways to overcome emotional issues or to enhance real-life experiences for the elderly or physically challenged.

SIGGRAPH 2005 will bring nearly 30,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to Los Angeles for the week-long conference, 31 July-4 August. A comprehensive technical program and special events focusing on research, art, animation, games, interactivity, and the web are planned. SIGGRAPH 2005 includes a three-day exhibition of products and services for the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 2-4 August 2005.

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ACM SIGGRAPH, the leading professional society for computer graphics and interactive techniques, sponsors SIGGRAPH 2005.